Surgeon Wins Unum LTD Insurance Lawsuit for Back Disorders

Our client, a general surgeon with chronic back pain, will finally receive the long-term disability benefits that he has been denied since October 2004. The United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois entered a final judgment of $402,268.00 against UNUM (formerly known as Paul Revere Life Insurance Company). In addition to the $402,000 our client’s disability policy will pay him more than $3.9 million over his lifetime.

After several years of attempting to handle the disability claim on his own, Dell Disability Lawyers was retained in 2007. A lawsuit was filed shortly thereafter and after a 4 day jury trial in December 2009, a jury verdict in favor of our client was obtained. Unum offered a nominal amount of money prior to trial which was rejected.

Unum believed that they would win this case at trial because our client had been to the doctor for only 3 visits in a 5 year period to treat his back pain. Our client and his physician explained at trial that additional medical treatment was not necessary and our client testified that he would do daily home exercises.

While our client is no longer able to physically perform the material duties of a general surgeon, his disability policy permits to continue working as a medical doctor and collect his disability benefits. Our client’s trial team included Gregory Dell, Gregory Denes, and Cesar Gavidia.

Dell Disability Lawyers were paid an attorney fee of $154,000 and the litigation expenses were $28,000. The client continues to retain our law firm on a contingency fee basis.